This vision of how the Pasig River can look post clean-up was prepared by the Palafox Associates. [Courtesy of the ABS-CBN Foundation]

The new clean up project will have a two-pronged approach: consciousness raising and physical clean up projects.

To rehabilitate the river, Bantay Kalikasan together with all its partner agencies and organizations proposed a set of strategies which will control pollution at source.

The proposed clean-up includes cleaning up all the 47 tributaries that flow into the main river. In order to do this, Bantay Kalikasan plans to strengthen the Clean River Zones (CRZ) started by the Sagip Pasig Movement. These CRZs are composed of communities residing near the tributaries. The Clean River Zone vision is to have “zero toxic input to the Pasig River.”

To achieve this, solid waste management facilities will be set up in the area to ensure that all wastes, biodegradable and non-biodegradable, will be properly segregated and composted or recycled. One incentive for communities to get involved is the income they are expected to generate from making different products like pails, table tops, chairs, tiles, and bricks out of shredded plastics and melted styrofoam.

To address the problem on wastewater, Manila Water and Maynilad—both concessionaires of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage System—agreed to do the desludging of all households in the CRZ for free.

In addition to this, Bantay Kalikasan proposes to the Local Government Units a good resettlement program coupled with a viable livelihood program for the informal settlers along the tributaries. (See related story: 'Squatters' relocation a must for Pasig River clean-up’)

Media Component

Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig is not the first effort to clean up the river. There had been a lot of previous efforts, Gina Lopez acknowledged at the project launch on Tuesday, February 24, at the Makati Park and Garden. What is different this time, she said, is the central role the media will be playing in the clean-up campaign. “The media component was missing in previous efforts.”

ABS-CBN Chairman Gabby Lopez assured those present at the launch of the media network’s full support for the project. “We’re excited about this project. The model is the La Mesa Dam. We will apply that model to Pasig.”

Earlier, AFI was also instrumental in transforming and rehabilitating the La Mesa Dam into today’s La Mesa Ecopark, now a popular weekend destination in Quezon City.

The AFI has also been reaching out to major dailies and other networks in respect to the clean-up drive.

The media’s role is crucial because, in order to clean up the river, a change in consciousness is required, Gina Lopez said. “We need to shift consciousness, resurface hope that we can make things happen.”

Any clean-up effort, she explained, is bound to fail if there is no shift in consciousness. “Right now, people treat the river like it’s their toilet bowl.” People, she said, have to start regarding the river again as the “lifeline of our nation.”

Media attention is also important, she said, in order to get local leaders to support and get involved in cleaning up and beautification activities as well as to get them to act on complaints against those violating environmental laws. “You have to give them a pat in the back when they do good,” she told reporters present at the launch. At the same time, she said, media should also report on government inaction with respect to environmental violations.

Somewhere along the way, people’s view of the river changed, Gina Lopez, managing director of the ABS-CBN Foundation (AFI), said at the launch of Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig, the latest in a long string of efforts to rehabilitate the country’s most prominent river system.

From being a recreation venue and a source of food and livelihood, the river became the 'dumping ground' of informal settlers who live along the banks of the river and its tributaries, as well as by almost all establishments surrounding it.

An estimated 65% of the pollutants in the Pasig river come from households, 30% from the industrial sector and 5% from solid wastes.

Metro Manila’s 11 million-plus residents, according to studies, produce roughly 440 tons of domestic wastewater every day. The river became the city’s toilet bowl.

Worse, as the city continues to wage its battle against solid waste, the river also became the primary dumping ground. Currently, Metro Manila is reportedly producing as much as 7,000 tons or 31 cubic meters of trash per day. Out of this, about 1,500 tons is dumped daily (and illegally) on private land, creeks, rivers and the Manila Bay.

One river clean up effort after another failed as the source of the pollution—Metro Manila’s population of over 10 million individuals—continued to relentlessly dump waste and garbage into the river and its tributaries.

The problem has gotten so bad that some parts of the San Juan river, one of the Pasig’s main tributaries, are already emitting methane.

This is the situation that the AFI took on in March 2008 when its environment arm, Bantay Kalikasan, entered into a seven year agreeement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to become co-manager of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Project.

The project has since metamorphosed into the Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig which was formally launched yesterday, February 24, at the Makati Park and Garden.

The relocation of informal settlers is key to cleaning up the Pasig River, Gina Lopez, managing director of ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. said Tuesday at the launching of the KapitBisigIlogPasig, a government-private sector effort to revive the "Nation's River."

Contrary to popular belief, 65% of the waste that flows in the Pasig River comes from households including waste dumped by informal settlers along riverbanks, not from industries or businesses.

Aside from the waste, the health and safety of the informal settlers are also at risk, Ms. Lopez said, citing an incident last year where a baby of a family illegally living on the banks of the San Juan river fell into the water which flows directly to Pasig .

Lopez said that with the help of the National Housing Authority, the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC), Habitat for Humanity and Globe Asiatique, the informal settlers will hopefully be relocated to Calauan, Laguna, where a model community has already been established.

She said the community can accommodate 10,000 settlers. She is eyeing the relocation of 1,000 by June, but it should start in March.

“Hopefully, we will get money to be able to relocate 4,000 more informal settlers,” she added.

She said the informal settlers should be relocated in sustainable communities, such as in Calauan.

Livelihood, transportation aid

Pasig City Mayor Roberto Eusebio said his government is providing livelihood assistance to 100 settlers in his area so that “relocated individuals who want to earn, could earn a little money.”

Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte said that they have relocated families to Bulacan, Montalban, and Rodriguez.

“These places are close to the city and people can continue to work in the city,” Belmonte said.

Makati Mayor JejomarBinay added that “aside from livelihood, there should be transportation assistance."

"It is really a matter of transportation costs that attracts them back to settle in their former area,” he said.

If local government units (LGUs) work together, “not only will there be a physical change in Pasig River, but also a change in the people’s attitude,” Belmonte said.

“There is no use beautifying the river if the people think it is impossible,” Ms. Lopez said.

“Working together with the National Government, LGUs, NGOs, Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), and PRRC, mayors and congressmen is the whole point of KapitBisigIlogPasig. We are all working together as one," she said.

Close to a hundred years ago, renowned American urban planner Daniel Burnham, described Manila thus:

“Possessing the bay of Naples, the winding river of Paris, and the canals of Venice, Manila has before it an opportunity to create a unified city equal to the greatest of the Western World with the unparalleled and priceless addition of a tropical setting.”

The Pasig River is the lifeline of our nation. Its banks served as the cradle of the Tagalog civilization. It bore witness both to significant events in the country’s history and to daily lives of our people.

Pollution and relentless dumping has turned it into no more than a ghost of its old self.

But the ABS-CBN Foundation believes it is possible to turn things around. Through KapitBisig para saIlogPasig, it seeks to restore Pasig River to its former glory.

We invite you to join us in this effort.

For volunteer inquiries, please email pilar.bantaykpasig@gmail.com. You may also call the “Kapit Bisig sa Ilog Pasig” secretariat at (02) 416-1911 or (02) 4152272 local 3797.